Speaker 1: Life Audio.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the Praying Christian Women podcast. I
Speaker 2: am Milana here with Jamie. How are you doing?
Speaker 1: Doing great? How are you good?
Speaker 2: I am very excited. We are taking a short break
Speaker 2: from Witches and doing a complete one hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: degree turn. We're going to Broadway, which everybody knows if
Speaker 2: you've listened for a little bit at least. I always
Speaker 2: will go back to Broadway eventually. So let me tell
Speaker 2: you the story behind why I wanted to cover this
Speaker 2: topic slash song to day. So I was subbing for
Speaker 2: middle school English for the last week of school and
Speaker 2: it was an unexpected departure from their normal teacher, so
Speaker 2: I didn't have sub plans, so I just kind of
Speaker 2: had to come up with my own something or other.
Speaker 2: So one day we talked about character motivation and we
Speaker 2: talked about I want songs. Is that a phrase you're
Speaker 2: familiar with in like musical theater or Disney lingo?
Speaker 1: No, I have never heard of that.
Speaker 2: It was a really fun lesson to do with the kids.
Speaker 2: So basically, an I want song, especially if you think
Speaker 2: about Disney movies, but almost every musical has what it's
Speaker 2: called an I want song, and this is where the
Speaker 2: character sings their motivation and usually comes toward the beginning,
Speaker 2: and it tells you like their driving desire. So really
Speaker 2: common ones like in The Lion King we have I
Speaker 2: just can't wait to be King, or Moana has her
Speaker 2: really beautiful song how Far I'll go about, how she
Speaker 2: longs for the ocean entangled. She's got the song when
Speaker 2: will my Life Begin? Because she just wants something to
Speaker 2: happen in her life. Belle sings, I want so much
Speaker 2: more than this provincial life. So every Disney movie and
Speaker 2: just about every musical that has singing in it, the
Speaker 2: main character gets what's called an I Want song. And
Speaker 2: what we were doing in class is we were going
Speaker 2: through different I Want songs first to just identify what
Speaker 2: is driving this character. But what I realized as we
Speaker 2: were going through it is that every single I Want song,
Speaker 2: you can go deeper and deeper, and basically what we're
Speaker 2: talking about is what you and I have talked about before,
Speaker 2: and it's like the prayer behind the prayer behind the prayer,
Speaker 2: and so love it. You might say, Okay, so just
Speaker 2: off the cuff, tell me a Disney movie that has singing,
Speaker 2: and I'll see if I can can do it on
Speaker 2: the fly.
Speaker 1: Okay, the princess and the frog, I haven't seen that one. Okay,
Speaker 1: my drawing up link Disney Cinderella. Cinderella.
Speaker 2: Okay, she's the one I think she sings one day
Speaker 2: my Prince will come? Right?
Speaker 1: Does that sound r? That sounds really?
Speaker 2: It's one of the og basically all of the I
Speaker 2: Want songs in early Disney all the princess is one
Speaker 2: of their prints. So what she wants is her prince
Speaker 2: to come. And so on the one hand, you can say, okay,
Speaker 2: she won romance and true love, but then what you
Speaker 2: have to ask is what is the deeper motivation? And
Speaker 2: then what you're trying to get to is the universal
Speaker 2: motivation that will ring true for every single human who
Speaker 2: has ever lived, or at least like ninety eight percent
Speaker 2: of humans who have ever lived. So not everybody wants
Speaker 2: to marry a prince. So we could make it more
Speaker 2: universal by saying, oh, she wants to marry her true love. Well,
Speaker 2: not everybody is motivated by love and romance, right, Either
Speaker 2: you're too young to care, or maybe you've moved beyond it,
Speaker 2: or you've been burned by love. So then you ask, well,
Speaker 2: what is an even deeper, driving universal motivation.
Speaker 1: It goes beyond romance.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just to be loved and understood, or maybe
Speaker 2: like Cinderella specifically, it's this universal fantasy of being rescued
Speaker 2: from a life of dullness, you know. And so what
Speaker 2: we realize listening to these I Went songs is like
Speaker 2: you can kind of list three or maybe at the
Speaker 2: most full or five like universal motivations, and every song
Speaker 2: is going to take you back to one of those.
Speaker 2: And so what I loved is none of the kids,
Speaker 2: like all the middle school kids were too young to
Speaker 2: have ever watched Fiddler on the Roof, which is the
Speaker 2: I Want song we're going to be talking about, stay another.
Speaker 2: Like when you're talking about super famous I Want songs,
Speaker 2: you go to Fiddler if I were a rich man
Speaker 2: because it's just fun. I know some pop star redid it,
Speaker 2: but I don't know who. Have you heard that version
Speaker 2: or do you know what I'm talking about? It's been
Speaker 2: redone in a bajillion different ways. Apparently I was watching
Speaker 2: a cute documentary about Fiddler. Apparently Fiddler on the Roof
Speaker 2: is super popular in Japan, Like this is a musical
Speaker 2: that truly does have universal appeal and it's I want
Speaker 2: song from Its main character is if I were a
Speaker 2: rich man. And on the surface, he's just singing about
Speaker 2: how he wants to be rich, and it doesn't sound
Speaker 2: like much and it's kind of a silly song. So
Speaker 2: on the surface you think of, oh, this is just
Speaker 2: like a fun, little goofy song about somebody who wants
Speaker 2: more money than he has. But what I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: is I'm going to walk you through it, going kind
Speaker 2: of like what we did with the middle schoolers, going
Speaker 2: deeper and deeper and deeper, and also talk about how
Speaker 2: this song can be a really powerful prayer template. And
Speaker 2: I'm not at all being like facetious or ironic. I
Speaker 2: feel like analyzing this song not to be overly dramatic,
Speaker 2: is like the culmination of just about everything that you
Speaker 2: and I have ever talked about in praying Christian. That's
Speaker 2: how excited I got about it.
Speaker 1: This is exciting, this is good. So tell me.
Speaker 2: About your knowledge and experience with the musical.
Speaker 1: Fitnler on the roof, So I know I saw it
Speaker 1: live somewhere I don't know, when I was pretty young,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the first like musicals I
Speaker 1: remember seeing it's the Is it the one with Matchmaker? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: so I remember the Matchmaker scene with the girl with
Speaker 1: the best and it's Matchmaker and Matchmaker make me a
Speaker 1: met And I remember him literally sitting on the roof
Speaker 1: ay and character singing, ah, you know, And I remember
Speaker 1: him singing if I were a wealthy man, if I
Speaker 1: were a rich man, I remember it being like the
Speaker 1: feeling I got when I saw I mean, I just
Speaker 1: remember it was a really good thing. But if I
Speaker 1: had to recall the actual like plot from beginning to end,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to tell you. So I know
Speaker 1: pieces of it, and I know it's uh, is this
Speaker 1: the little Girl? You know?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that song is so sad and beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's there's some really really good songs in there for
Speaker 2: anybody who needs the warning and the reminder. Act two
Speaker 2: is so sad like it's a feel good. Act one
Speaker 2: is so feel good, and then it just goes so
Speaker 2: downhill like it does not have the regular happy musical
Speaker 2: beats past the first two thirds of Act one, but
Speaker 2: really really important, the very basic premise is Tevia is
Speaker 2: a Russian Jew and I'm gonna guess the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 2: because there's still czars, so it must be early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: And he's got three daughters who are all getting close
Speaker 2: to marriage age, and each of them chooses a husband,
Speaker 2: and each of their husband choices gets progressively farther from
Speaker 2: the tradition. So the first daughter, she just chooses a
Speaker 2: poor tailor, and it's revolutionary because they chose each other
Speaker 2: and didn't go through the matchmaker. The second one chooses
Speaker 2: a like Bolshevik revolutionist and you know, an outsider from Ukraine,
Speaker 2: so that's an even bigger deal. And then the last
Speaker 2: one marries someone who's not even Jewish and ends up
Speaker 2: like devastatingly getting disowned by her like the whole Like
Speaker 2: I said, Act two, so sad, Act one ends on
Speaker 2: a pogrom like it's it's really really not the happy
Speaker 2: musical that you would think it is. If all you
Speaker 2: knew is the song if I were a rich man
Speaker 2: or a tradition at the beginning, Do you remember that one?
Speaker 1: Yes, So that's the basic.
Speaker 2: Premise, and it's this man in his traditional ways coming
Speaker 2: or trying to come to terms with the fact that
Speaker 2: his daughters are all becoming progressively more removed from that.
Speaker 2: Like if I were going to write a modern day
Speaker 2: Fiddler on the Roof for an Evangelical Christian family, it
Speaker 2: would be the first child like lives with their fiance
Speaker 2: before they're married, and the parents have to deal with that,
Speaker 2: and then the second child marries like somebody from a
Speaker 2: pretty different denomination, right, like going from I don't want
Speaker 2: any denominations.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean, like Protestant, Catholic or
Speaker 1: you know something like that, Yeah, within Protestanty, yeah.
Speaker 2: Exactly, but like denominations that don't play well but still
Speaker 2: fall under the cris believe in Jesus, right, and then
Speaker 2: the last one, like Mary's an atheist and like disowns
Speaker 2: the church. Like that's the progression that Tevia is going
Speaker 2: through as he's watching his daughters at this specific point
Speaker 2: in history. Right in the middle of actbun we get
Speaker 2: this beautifully happy if I were a rich man song,
Speaker 2: which again on the surface, sounds like a funny man
Speaker 2: singing about wanting to be wealthy. But we're going to
Speaker 2: take it and go like deeper and deeper and deeper
Speaker 2: into it and see how this is actually the most
Speaker 2: profound template for prayer that I have ever found outside
Speaker 2: the Book of Psalms or outside the Lord's.
Speaker 1: Prayer or anything in the New Testament.
Speaker 2: So it starts off with the very basic if I
Speaker 2: were a rich man all day long, night, bitty bitty
Speaker 2: bomb like. Basically, the scene is he's feeding all his
Speaker 2: chicken and cows, and he's working really hard, and he's
Speaker 2: just kind of singing to himself about being a rich friend.
Speaker 2: But here's the other thing I love about Teba, the
Speaker 2: main character. He is always talking to God in the
Speaker 2: most conversational style that I have ever heard anybody.
Speaker 1: Speak to the Lord.
Speaker 2: And yes, I know that Tebbe is not a real person,
Speaker 2: but I from now on he's He's real in my heart,
Speaker 2: so bear with me. He just talks to God. And
Speaker 2: so he starts off the song and says, Dear God,
Speaker 2: you made many many poor people. I realize, of course,
Speaker 2: that it's no shame to be poor, but it's no
Speaker 2: great honor either, So what would have been so terrible
Speaker 2: if I had a small fortune? And throughout the entire
Speaker 2: show we see him just having these kinds of conversations
Speaker 2: with God. Something pops into his mind and he says
Speaker 2: it to the Lord, and so a I just like
Speaker 2: that aspect about Teba, about being more conversational in prayer
Speaker 2: than most of us feel the free them to be.
Speaker 2: But I want to go specifically into if I were
Speaker 2: a Richmond, because most of us would have lots of
Speaker 2: gut checks and qualms and icky feelings about our very
Speaker 2: first prayer of the day being God, I really want
Speaker 2: to have more money, and I am probably going to
Speaker 2: say rightly so like that truly shouldn't be the driving
Speaker 2: factor for any of us. Like there is enough in
Speaker 2: the Book of Proverbs alone to lead us to understand
Speaker 2: that money is not the most important thing in the world,
Speaker 2: and the love of money can lead to all kinds
Speaker 2: of terrible things. I love my grandma's quote about money.
Speaker 2: I think I told you that she said it to
Speaker 2: me just in the past couple of years. She says,
Speaker 2: money isn't everything, but sometimes it sure can help. And
Speaker 2: she was talking about it in the context of having
Speaker 2: long term disability insurance because she wasn't sure if eventually
Speaker 2: she was going to need it, but she knew that
Speaker 2: if she did need it, that she would probably be
Speaker 2: taken care of it. So it's like, you know, I know,
Speaker 2: money isn't everything, but it can help sometimes. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: is it a sin to pray for more money?
Speaker 1: Let's start there, my knee jerk reaction, having not thought
Speaker 1: through all of the theological and you know whatever, I
Speaker 1: would say No. Number one, if you're thinking it and
Speaker 1: prayer is a conversation, I don't see why you wouldn't
Speaker 1: say it in the presence of God. If you're thinking
Speaker 1: to yourself, and you know Jesus says give us this
Speaker 1: day our daily bread, which can translate to if you
Speaker 1: don't have money for your daily bread, then why would
Speaker 1: you not pray that God would provide that, even if
Speaker 1: it's just a want and not a need. If it's
Speaker 1: I sure could use a cushion so that I'm not
Speaker 1: so anxious all the time and so I feel like
Speaker 1: I could be more present for my family or whatever.
Speaker 2: Well you mean like a financial cushion. I was fixturing
Speaker 2: you wanted to buy yourself a little throw pillow so
Speaker 2: that you didn't feel so anxious.
Speaker 1: Filled with money. Yeah, what kind of throw pillow is this?
Speaker 1: And where do I get one? Okay, this will be
Speaker 1: another one of our praying Christian women trademarked and patented. Yes,
Speaker 1: the pillow that anti anxiety pillow. No a cushion like
Speaker 1: to a cushion of money, like more financial cushion, financial cushion,
Speaker 1: just like not paycheck to paycheck that we have you know,
Speaker 1: read whatever. So I still see no problem with bringing
Speaker 1: that to God. And I think if you know, in
Speaker 1: James it says you ask and you do not receive
Speaker 1: because you ask with impure motive, with selfish motives that
Speaker 1: you can spend, you know, frivolously. So I don't see
Speaker 1: why we shouldn't at least bring our desires to God,
Speaker 1: if for no other reason than to put it under
Speaker 1: the authority of truth and say, God, this is how
Speaker 1: I'm feeling, this is what I want, and maybe to
Speaker 1: even just be like, if this isn't serving me well,
Speaker 1: to be focused on this, then help change my heart.
Speaker 1: I feel like there can be different motives at the
Speaker 1: core of asking for more money, and so you have
Speaker 1: to look at that too, like are you asking for
Speaker 1: more money so that you can be more generous or
Speaker 1: help someone or help your family to achieve something that
Speaker 1: is important to them or to you. And then on
Speaker 1: the other hand, you could be manipulative in your prayers
Speaker 1: about money and say, you know, like oh well, Dave
Speaker 1: Ramsey says that I'm going to, you know, get money.
Speaker 1: Like his whole stick is you get so you can get.
Speaker 1: And I think that's great. But I could see myself
Speaker 1: convincing myself that it's fine to amass lots of resources
Speaker 1: and just so I can give and then end up giving,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a lot, but still saving and getting.
Speaker 1: And I think it's where you where do you put
Speaker 1: your security? Is your security coming from that money? Or
Speaker 1: you know, you could look at give us this day
Speaker 1: or daily bread as give us just what we need
Speaker 1: right now, so that we don't get too dependent on
Speaker 1: money for security, and we remember from whom our help comes.
Speaker 1: So I basically just threw a bunch of spaghetti at
Speaker 1: the wall, and you guys can decide.
Speaker 2: We'd love to all of your spaghetti. It was delicious, yeall.
Speaker 2: So when Tavia says, even at the beginning, I realize
Speaker 2: it's no shame to be poor, but it's no great
Speaker 2: honor either, it reminds you of what Paul says. He says,
Speaker 2: I have learned the secret of being content in any
Speaker 2: in every situation, whether well fed or hungry. So it's
Speaker 2: no great sin to be poor. It's no great shame
Speaker 2: to be poor, it's no great sin to be rich.
Speaker 2: It's no great shame to be rich. It is what
Speaker 2: it is. And so hey, I love Tavia's reminder that
Speaker 2: like money is money, Like it doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: more loaded than that, right, But we attach.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm like, what did I pun? Yes, but we
Speaker 1: attach so much to it.
Speaker 2: And I think something of that is because we get
Speaker 2: mixed messages in the Christian community. We get messages of
Speaker 2: you can only have a certain amount of money because
Speaker 2: it says give us to stay our daily bread. It
Speaker 2: doesn't say give us a stay our retirement bread. But
Speaker 2: we also get we are generous so that God will
Speaker 2: be generous to us. And then we also get it's
Speaker 2: more virtuous to be poor because Jesus was poor. Like,
Speaker 2: we get a lot of mixed messages, and then all
Speaker 2: of that gets tied up in the American dream and
Speaker 2: in you know, like there is so much corporateness that
Speaker 2: is part of Western churches today and you can't wead
Speaker 2: that out. Just it is, you know, in the same
Speaker 2: way to like you go to church and you breathe
Speaker 2: oxygen because oxygen is in the Air's like you go
Speaker 2: to church and you breathe corporate capitalistic ideas, because that's
Speaker 2: the society that at least you and I are in,
Speaker 2: and a lot of our listeners are in.
Speaker 1: Like, so it is, it's just there.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's one of the takeaways we
Speaker 2: get from Tevia, Like he's praying about money because money
Speaker 2: is on his mind and that's literally all that it
Speaker 2: has to be. So I loved what you said, is like,
Speaker 2: is it wrong for money to be the primary thing
Speaker 2: you want in life? It probably is, but it's probably
Speaker 2: just as bad, and it's definitely no better to have
Speaker 2: money be your primary motivation and then go to God
Speaker 2: and pretend like it's not. And So what is so
Speaker 2: refreshing and beautiful about Tavia in the entire musical, but
Speaker 2: especially in the song, is like there's no pretense, right,
Speaker 2: he wants money, and so he's not ashamed to come
Speaker 2: to God and say I want money. And let's be
Speaker 2: honest here, Like Tavia is not wrong to want more
Speaker 2: than he has, Like it is he is a poor
Speaker 2: dairy farmer with a crippled horse and can't make his
Speaker 2: deliveries and he's got five daughters to feed and find
Speaker 2: dowries for like he does not He literally does not
Speaker 2: have as much as he needs to have.
Speaker 1: What he needs.
Speaker 2: Right, I know that was redundant, and I kind of
Speaker 2: did that deliberately. And here's something I think, especially for
Speaker 2: women and moms, we have such an innate drive to
Speaker 2: make sure that our families are provided for. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: that is a core need of ours to make sure
Speaker 2: that our families feel safe and secure. But we're also
Speaker 2: told from a lot of areas that it's wrong to
Speaker 2: pray for material things or it's wrong to put your
Speaker 2: trust in material things. And yes, it is wrong to
Speaker 2: trust in your riches over God, but it's not wrong
Speaker 2: to once to know that your family's not going to
Speaker 2: be hungry next week. It's not wrong to want to
Speaker 2: know that you can afford to get your child's shoes
Speaker 2: for the school year. And so I want to talk
Speaker 2: specifically to the mom or the grandma or whoever's listening,
Speaker 2: who who is so caught up in that fear that
Speaker 2: you are shaming yourself for not having what you need
Speaker 2: and then feeling bad that you're praying about not having
Speaker 2: the things that you need. As women, we need to
Speaker 2: know that our loved ones are taken care of. That
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that we need every single thing in the world.
Speaker 2: But if your child needs shoes for school and you
Speaker 2: do not know where money for their shoes for school
Speaker 2: is going to come from, it is not wrong for
Speaker 2: you to feel that in the core of your good
Speaker 2: If you look in the fridge and you are concerned
Speaker 2: because you just don't have enough nutritious stuff to give
Speaker 2: yourself an your family, you are not being sinful for
Speaker 2: worrying about that. Or if you're looking at your bank
Speaker 2: account and you don't know how things are going to
Speaker 2: get taken care of, it is not wrong for you
Speaker 2: to recognize that you are in hard financial times and
Speaker 2: this is a hard economy, and so I hope that
Speaker 2: this is sinking in. Like as women, this is not
Speaker 2: something to be ashamed of. This is something to celebrate
Speaker 2: because we were designed to make sure that our loved
Speaker 2: ones are provided for and so when that's not happening,
Speaker 2: we are going to feel that unease. And what I
Speaker 2: love about Tedbia going back to if I were a
Speaker 2: rich man, he has no shame coming to God saying God,
Speaker 2: I want a small fortune. Okay, he's starting with where
Speaker 2: he is.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that.
Speaker 2: Everyone, now drop to your knees and pray these magic words,
Speaker 2: and God's going to give you a small fortune, or
Speaker 2: you know, let's go ahead and make it a big fortune.
Speaker 2: We're not after that. What we're after is be one
Speaker 2: hundred percent honest and transparent with God with exactly where
Speaker 2: you are. And if that means you say, God, I'm
Speaker 2: terrified that we're not gonna be housed next year, you
Speaker 2: start there. If it's God, I'm really sad that I
Speaker 2: couldn't go on this luxury vacation that I go on
Speaker 2: every year, but I'm also feeling guilty for feeling bad
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: You start there.
Speaker 2: If it's I'm really, really really really really want to
Speaker 2: get this promotion because I've worked super hard for it
Speaker 2: and I really want this addition to my paycheck.
Speaker 1: You start there.
Speaker 2: But none of us are going to end where we
Speaker 2: start in our prayer, and I think that's another message.
Speaker 2: So let's go to VERSU. He starts with, I want
Speaker 2: to be a rich man. I don't want to work
Speaker 2: hard all day long.
Speaker 1: I'm in a bitty bitty bomb.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's his surface, that's just he's starting with exactly
Speaker 2: where he is. He says, I'd build a big, tall
Speaker 2: house with rooms by the dozen, right in the middle
Speaker 2: of the town, a fine tin roof with real wooden floors.
Speaker 2: Below there would be one long staircase just going up
Speaker 2: and one even longer coming down. More leading nowhere just
Speaker 2: for show. Okay, on the surface, we see a man
Speaker 2: with very frivolous wants and desires. And so now I'm
Speaker 2: going to have you do what I did with the
Speaker 2: middle schoolers, not to be condescending to you, but just
Speaker 2: because it was a really cool exercise. How far can
Speaker 2: you take this? Because not all of us want a
Speaker 2: house with one staircase going up and one going down
Speaker 2: and one just for show. So how how many steps
Speaker 2: can we get until we hit on a universal desire
Speaker 2: that ninety percent or more of us are going to
Speaker 2: relate to.
Speaker 1: So I think he wants to be able to have
Speaker 1: nice things, And to me, the just for show makes
Speaker 1: me think that he wants to have something he can
Speaker 1: take pride in and something that he can just be
Speaker 1: proud of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sometimes there is a reason for beauty. It
Speaker 2: took me a long time to realize, but that's what
Speaker 2: having houseplants has taught me, Because I grew up so
Speaker 2: stoic that anything that didn't have a very precise function
Speaker 2: was a waste of time and money and energy. And
Speaker 2: so I literally got into houseplants when I learned that
Speaker 2: they cleaned the air. That gave me permission to have
Speaker 2: them because they were serving a purpose. Now I've learned
Speaker 2: to appreciate them because they are beautiful additions to my
Speaker 2: space and learning to be okay with that. It's kind
Speaker 2: of like does our sanctuary and I'm guilty of this.
Speaker 2: We have this little spot in our church's sanctuary where
Speaker 2: we can hang like a little banner, and there were
Speaker 2: some people in the church who take a lot of
Speaker 2: joy out of changing that banner from season to season,
Speaker 2: or having it matched the fake flowers on the centerpiece
Speaker 2: or things like that. Have I in the past rolled
Speaker 2: my eyes a little bit about it?
Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: Do I, at least on a lodge level, recognize that
Speaker 2: there is a place for something to be beautiful just
Speaker 2: because it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Yeah. Look at Solomon's Temple and the care and
Speaker 1: the you know, the the artisans, everything that went into
Speaker 1: that to just make it beautiful for the glory of God,
Speaker 1: just for beauty's sake, and I'm that way. I was
Speaker 1: always very much like, I'll put time into a vegetable garden,
Speaker 1: but I don't want flowers, Like why would I want flowers?
Speaker 1: And you know, over the years, I've started to understand more.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of that way about fashion. I don't personally
Speaker 1: have many fashionable clothes or any but I can appreciate
Speaker 1: the artistic expression of fashion on a cerebral level where
Speaker 1: I can see, you know what, that's somebody's expression of
Speaker 1: beauty and why not like that's okay? And I used
Speaker 1: to be a little stoic about that, like a T
Speaker 1: shirt and gene like, mom, why do I have to
Speaker 1: even like brush my hair? And now my daughter, who
Speaker 1: I've got a hound to brush her hair, I'm like
Speaker 1: totally getting it back, but it's hilarious. Same with hair
Speaker 1: styles and extensive makeup, Like I don't do either of
Speaker 1: that really, and you know, but I can totally appreciate
Speaker 1: the value in beautiful things.
Speaker 2: So yes, this was driven home to me when we
Speaker 2: did our Proverbs thirty one study. That was honestly, I
Speaker 2: think my biggest or one of my biggest takeaways. We
Speaker 2: did a whole mini series on how does the proverb
Speaker 2: thirty one woman pray. And I realized how much baggage
Speaker 2: I carry about things that are seen as frivolous, you know,
Speaker 2: and how how silly it is to like who cares
Speaker 2: if someone chooses to put lipstick on before church or not?
Speaker 2: Like that's that's her and God. And yeah, some people
Speaker 2: are doing it for right reasons. Some people are doing
Speaker 2: it from habits. Some people are abstaining for por like
Speaker 2: who cares? It's like it's like what color socks am
Speaker 2: I going to wear? It literally does not have to
Speaker 2: have any bearing on your life, but if it does,
Speaker 2: then whatever you do, do it for the glory of good.
Speaker 2: And I think that again, as women, just like we
Speaker 2: were designed to protect our homes, were designed to bring
Speaker 2: a sense of peace and common beauty to our homes.
Speaker 2: And some of us do that in one way, some
Speaker 2: of us do it in another way. And I think
Speaker 2: a lot of women, especially in the church, get shamed
Speaker 2: for wanting to have a beautiful space. I remember being
Speaker 2: part of a church that had just built its first building,
Speaker 2: and in a way they did it well, but in
Speaker 2: a way they also poo pooed it, like they had
Speaker 2: a decorating committee and they recognized, like they say that
Speaker 2: we want you ladies to make our church beautiful.
Speaker 1: But there was also a little.
Speaker 2: Bit of kind of like jostling and teasing and like
Speaker 2: you do the pretty you do the pretty work, and
Speaker 2: we'll get the roof on, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: There was a little bit of that.
Speaker 2: Too, And why can't we have both? Like Teva wants
Speaker 2: a big tall house with a real tin roof, fanty
Speaker 2: ones a frivolous staircase for no reason whatsoever. But here's
Speaker 2: what I'm also saying about Tevia. He still is being
Speaker 2: a little frivolous here. But we can go and we
Speaker 2: can ask ourselves. Okay, but what does he really really want?
Speaker 2: Because I think sometimes with prayer, we don't even know
Speaker 2: the prayer behind the prayer till we start pray. And
Speaker 2: Teva is just scratching the surface still. But could you
Speaker 2: read the next part about the yard with chicks and turkeys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which rings hits home for you right with your knee. Chickens.
Speaker 2: We just got some meat birds.
Speaker 1: It's been really fun.
Speaker 2: We haven't had chickens in like five to eight years.
Speaker 1: It's a long time into it. I'd fill my yard
Speaker 1: with chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks for the
Speaker 1: town to see in here squawking just as as they can,
Speaker 1: and each loud of the ghee be it gao, be
Speaker 1: it ge ga.
Speaker 2: He makes really weird noises.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm not going to do that for you guys.
Speaker 1: Not doing it would land like a trumpet on the ear,
Speaker 1: as if to say, here lives a wealthy man. Ah.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's dissect this one. So he wants
Speaker 2: lots of animals, he wants his farm to be full.
Speaker 2: We have, on the one hand, the food security and
Speaker 2: living in Alaska, living in rural Alaska, living around people
Speaker 2: who have always lived a subsistence lifestyle. I understand what
Speaker 2: food security means more than I ever did, back when
Speaker 2: you just drove yourself to a store and got your groceries.
Speaker 2: Food security is just knowing that if you don't get
Speaker 2: to town for three weeks for this side or the
Speaker 2: other reason, you're still going to have enough to eat.
Speaker 2: And so on the one hand, there's the only more
Speaker 2: universal desire is probably for water and I guess oxygen
Speaker 2: than food, you know. So he's hitting on that, But
Speaker 2: he's also hitting on another motivation that most of us
Speaker 2: would shy away from admitting to ourselves, or to each other,
Speaker 2: or to God. He says he wants all of the
Speaker 2: squawkings to land like a trumpet on the ear, as
Speaker 2: if to say, here lives a wealthy man. He does
Speaker 2: want the sign of wealth. So in our culture, for
Speaker 2: a lot of people, that's the car, or that's the
Speaker 2: fancy per So those are the first thing that come
Speaker 2: to my mind. Can you think of any others?
Speaker 1: I think the cars and purses are the biggest ones.
Speaker 2: It used to be watches, and I think in certain
Speaker 2: circles of I but you know, we all get our
Speaker 2: we all get our time from our phones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, watches, you know, gadgets, Yeah, the newest smartphone, although
Speaker 1: everyone kind of has sort of the same phones. Like
Speaker 1: I don't feel like, I mean know, there's a spectrum,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think yeah probably and maybe just like
Speaker 1: I know in our neighborhood, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: meticulous about their yards. And that doesn't mean you're wealthy,
Speaker 1: but it's like it's another pride thing. Yeah, it's taking
Speaker 1: care a sign of wealth, but it's like it's like
Speaker 1: a pride thing. And I see that with the you know,
Speaker 1: one more staircase leading nowhere just for show, and you know,
Speaker 1: those ideas of just wanting it to be more than
Speaker 1: just comfort for his family, but wanting other people to know.
Speaker 1: So that to me says I want to be respected, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: I want, And as we see later it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: like respected for how hard Well maybe it is. He's
Speaker 1: later on he talks about, you know, not having to work,
Speaker 1: but like maybe he wants people to say all of
Speaker 1: his hard work and maybe he wants to know even
Speaker 1: for himself, like all of this hard work has gone
Speaker 1: for something. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's why we've said for like, there needs
Speaker 2: to be a word for pride, and there needs to
Speaker 2: be a word for pride, and one of them needs
Speaker 2: to be the thing that we're very quick to run
Speaker 2: away from, and the other should be something that we
Speaker 2: can either accept and embrace or at the very least
Speaker 2: be ambivalent about.
Speaker 1: Like I'm proud of my children.
Speaker 2: I'm not worried that God's going to smite me for
Speaker 2: being proud of my kids, and I hope you aren't either.
Speaker 2: So there are certain scenarios where we understand that pride
Speaker 2: is supposed to be good, you know, like if you
Speaker 2: have a three year old who's just learned how to
Speaker 2: do something, you know, tricky. Maybe they've just learned how
Speaker 2: to write the first letter of their name or something like.
Speaker 2: You're supposed to feel proud of them, and you're supposed
Speaker 2: to help them to feel proud of themselves. But then
Speaker 2: somehow it gets so complicated, just like money, it gets
Speaker 2: so into well, don't pride is a sin? Well, yes,
Speaker 2: there is a pride that is a sin, and then
Speaker 2: there is a pride that is actually a really good
Speaker 2: thing to have in yourself, you know, like taking pride
Speaker 2: in your lawn. That could be a sin, That could
Speaker 2: be a really wise way to steward what God has
Speaker 2: given you. And it all comes down to what's in
Speaker 2: your heart. But yeah, so I think here we have
Speaker 2: to have. He definitely is is not too stoic sainthood
Speaker 2: on our litmus test of how pure are his motivations,
Speaker 2: But he is so honest and he's touching a little.
Speaker 2: I think he's getting deeper at the very surface. He
Speaker 2: just didn't want to have to work as hard as
Speaker 2: he does. The next level is he wants to be
Speaker 2: respected by people. And I think we can call that
Speaker 2: a universal desire that.
Speaker 1: At its core is not wrong. It is not wrong
Speaker 1: to wants to be respected.
Speaker 2: Now, it's wrong to want to be like worshiped or
Speaker 2: envied or things like that, but it's not wrong to
Speaker 2: want your dignity as a human being to be acknowledged
Speaker 2: in the same way that you acknowledge the dignity.
Speaker 1: Of other human beings.
Speaker 2: Right, there's just sort of a universal human respect that
Speaker 2: I believe is innate that if we are not receiving it,
Speaker 2: we do feel a lac and tevia. Being in a
Speaker 2: Jewish community where there is persecution and being one of
Speaker 2: the poorest members of that community, he isn't getting and
Speaker 2: he's a very henpecked husband. He's not getting the respect
Speaker 2: that universally a human deserves. His first way of knowing
Speaker 2: how to express that is saying, I want a great, big,
Speaker 2: long staircase going up right, just like you know the
Speaker 2: middle aged man their first I need the sports car. Okay,
Speaker 2: but what's deeper than that, and then what's deeper than that?
Speaker 2: And then what's deeper than that is I want the
Speaker 2: respect that I am owed just because of the fact
Speaker 2: that I am a human being who is creating in
Speaker 2: God's image, and you can't fault somebody for knowing that
Speaker 2: because I am a human being and because I'm a
Speaker 2: child of God, I deserve the baseline level.
Speaker 1: Of respect that every human deserves.
Speaker 2: Then we go down to he talks about his wife.
Speaker 2: He says, I see my wife, my goldie, looking like
Speaker 2: a rich man's wife with a proper double chin. And
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 1: I love that line.
Speaker 2: That is so funny. Supervising meals to her heart's delight.
Speaker 2: I see you're putting on airs and strutting like a peacock.
Speaker 2: Oh what a happy mood she's in, screaming at the
Speaker 2: servants day and night. Okay, so if you want to
Speaker 2: put on your super super judgy Christian hat, tell me
Speaker 2: everything that's wrong with Tevy's motivations from this. From this verse,
Speaker 2: he is.
Speaker 1: Praying for excess and gluttony to the point that she's
Speaker 1: you know, has more weight than she needs, which to
Speaker 1: him symbolize is prosperity, and supervising meals putting on airs. Again,
Speaker 1: the word pride comes to mind. Strutting like a peacock,
Speaker 1: and then you know, being happy herself and yet screaming
Speaker 1: at the servants and making them feel small.
Speaker 2: Not very christ like that part especially. I don't like
Speaker 2: that last light. Yeah, but we can if we want
Speaker 2: to be very gracious towards Tevia. I mean, hey, we're
Speaker 2: starting with you know what, Teva, you are where you are,
Speaker 2: so go ahead and tell God where you are. And
Speaker 2: I don't censor it. So that's good enough. But other
Speaker 2: than the screaming at the servants, which we don't want
Speaker 2: to get behind, I think there is a sense kind
Speaker 2: of like what we talked about with mothers wanting to
Speaker 2: know that your family's taken care of. There is a
Speaker 2: sense of just wanting to know that your loved ones
Speaker 2: are provided for. And so if we want to go
Speaker 2: to his deeper motivation and maybe try to hit on
Speaker 2: the universal motivations, it's I don't want my loved ones
Speaker 2: to worry, you know, Like I don't know how well
Speaker 2: you remember Goldie the musical, but she's a nag and
Speaker 2: she's a worry wart and she's always hounding him and
Speaker 2: he loves her to death and it's actually like it's
Speaker 2: really really beautiful and sweet and cute, and he wants
Speaker 2: her to be happy. And in his mind, what's going
Speaker 2: to make Goldie happy is being fat and having a
Speaker 2: lot of servants to yell at. Now, is that truly
Speaker 2: what's gonna make Goldie happy? No, but that is just
Speaker 2: his most uncensored first knee jerk reaction to this universal
Speaker 2: motivation of I want the woman that I love more
Speaker 2: than anything in the world to be happy. So again,
Speaker 2: just like all the other verses, we are getting the
Speaker 2: uncensored tuba. And then we can just shave a sight,
Speaker 2: a tiny, tiny bit and hit the layer that has
Speaker 2: no sinfulness, no sense elfishness to whatsoever. And that is
Speaker 2: just this universal God given desire to see your loved
Speaker 2: ones happily provided for. Like even John in one of
Speaker 2: his epistles, he says, I have no greater joy than
Speaker 2: that my children are walking in the truth. Like, what
Speaker 2: is going to make you and me more happy as
Speaker 2: we get older. It's just knowing that our kids are
Speaker 2: are fine and well, Like if I know that. Okay,
Speaker 2: So here's another thing. I was asking myself, you know
Speaker 2: how we were talking about I want songs.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I was going through my entire Broadway repertoire, and I
Speaker 2: was being like, out of all these beautiful because they're
Speaker 2: usually very belty, they're usually like Dawn from the gut.
Speaker 2: I was trying to see what is my life's I
Speaker 2: want song? And what I realized was it's the song
Speaker 2: I might get teary like, it's a song that Goldie
Speaker 2: sings to her daughter's or Sabbath prayer. She just wants
Speaker 2: them happy, Yeah, and she just wants them to be
Speaker 2: well taken care of, and she just wants them to
Speaker 2: be Okay, that is an like, that's not a selfish
Speaker 2: desire to have for your loved ones.
Speaker 1: No, okay, let's go to the next verse.
Speaker 2: Can you read it about the most important men in town?
Speaker 1: Yes? Before we do that, can I say one more
Speaker 1: thing about this last part. I feel like Tevia is
Speaker 1: like he probably sees her hard work and this idea
Speaker 1: of her yelling at servants. I picture him picturing her
Speaker 1: yelling at him, and he still loves her. He knows
Speaker 1: that she loves him. He's just her way, and so
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe it's like her yelling at the
Speaker 1: servants and kind of just her personality. But she has
Speaker 1: servants to yell to, so she can rest, she can
Speaker 1: look beautiful, she can feel good about herself. She can
Speaker 1: you know, take a load off and just enjoy life.
Speaker 1: For a little bit. I think that's kind of the
Speaker 1: core of that desire there, instead of it being you know,
Speaker 1: exactly whipping the servants. But anyway, okay, so we are next.
Speaker 1: The most important men in town would come to fawn
Speaker 1: on me. They would ask me to advise them, like
Speaker 1: a solemnon the wise, if you please, rebteva, pardon me
Speaker 1: rebteva posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes.
Speaker 2: So we're getting even deeper to the respect. He's gone
Speaker 2: from provision to respect. And I'm sure if we were
Speaker 2: sociologists we could even like transpose these onto that like
Speaker 2: mass love, hierarchy or whatever it's called. You know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like, once your basic needs for food and
Speaker 2: water and shelter are taken care of, you want that respect,
Speaker 2: You want that belonging. Now, yes, if I want to
Speaker 2: put on my really really judgie Christian hat, I'm going
Speaker 2: to look at him and wag my finger at him
Speaker 2: for not knowing that he is loved by God no
Speaker 2: matter what other people think of him. But when I
Speaker 2: put on my gracious hat and Teba, you're in every
Speaker 2: man hat, I say, yeah, we all want respect. And
Speaker 2: then you think about his history being a Jew in
Speaker 2: a region that gets regular programs, being one of the
Speaker 2: poorest in your town, having a wife who nags you incessantly,
Speaker 2: and you can see this craving for respect is not selfish.
Speaker 2: And I think this is the first verse where I
Speaker 2: don't even think we have to scratch off a layer
Speaker 2: to get to the pure, nonsinful, uncensored Teba motivation. Some
Speaker 2: people might disagree a little bit. Some people are going
Speaker 2: to say, well, you should be so secure in who
Speaker 2: you are in Christ that you don't need the esteem
Speaker 2: of others. But honestly, I think that could be a
Speaker 2: little prideful. It's almost like I don't need what every
Speaker 2: single human actually does need, which is community. Like if
Speaker 2: you don't like the word respect, if that feels too
Speaker 2: close to pride, just community and belonging. Please don't be
Speaker 2: so arrogant to think that you don't need that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean you could maybe it's a stretch,
Speaker 1: but you could take it a layer deeper and say,
Speaker 1: maybe he wants to contribute in a way that goes
Speaker 1: beyond just his provision. Like I wan't agree. Wise, I
Speaker 1: want to be able to advise people and make a
Speaker 1: difference on a community level. And not just you know,
Speaker 1: pluging a way to just put food on the table. Exactly.
Speaker 2: He has the heart of a scholar living the life
Speaker 2: of a really hard working farmer who never gets a
Speaker 2: day off. And that takes us to the very last verse,
Speaker 2: which is where we get his complete uncensored like, this
Speaker 2: is the true Tavia. If I were rich, I'd have
Speaker 2: the time that I lack to sit in the synagogue
Speaker 2: and pray and maybe have a seat by the eastern wall.
Speaker 2: I discuss holy books with the learned men several hours
Speaker 2: every day, and that would be the sweetest thing of all.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is cool.
Speaker 2: And so what I love is most of us would
Speaker 2: force ourselves to start our prayer with that pure motivation.
Speaker 2: We would say, God, please give me money so I
Speaker 2: can be generous. We wouldn't start with I really want
Speaker 2: money so my wife can be fat and so I
Speaker 2: can have a frivolous staircase. But Teeda starts exactly where
Speaker 2: he is, and with each verse he peels back a
Speaker 2: layer and becomes reveals more of his actual motivation until
Speaker 2: you get to something that is so pure and so beautiful.
Speaker 2: That's the real Like this is the prayer behind the
Speaker 2: prayer he wants money so that he has time to
Speaker 2: pray and study the Bible, and he says that would
Speaker 2: be the sweetest gift of all. But to get to
Speaker 2: that part of his prayer, he started with wanting to
Speaker 2: not have to work hard, And he started with wanting
Speaker 2: a wife who's free to yell at his servants, and
Speaker 2: to have a bunch of chickens who are so loud
Speaker 2: that they're squawking, so that the whole town knows that
Speaker 2: he's rich, you know, And so I love the progression.
Speaker 2: It shows how if you start censored, you're never going
Speaker 2: to get.
Speaker 1: As real with the Lord as Tevo Gott.
Speaker 2: If you start with, Dear God, please help me to
Speaker 2: have more money so that I can be more generous,
Speaker 2: there's nowhere to go from there. If you start with God,
Speaker 2: I am so stressed out about money right now. I
Speaker 2: just need two weeks where I don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about bills. I just need, like I need a job
Speaker 2: where I know that if my kid got sick, I
Speaker 2: could take a few days off and not have to
Speaker 2: not be able to make my utilities. Like, you start
Speaker 2: where you are, and then you can get to like
Speaker 2: the true center. But if you try to censor right
Speaker 2: from the beginning, You're never going to get there.
Speaker 1: And also you miss out on true relationship. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like the difference between pouring your heart out to
Speaker 1: your best friend over coffee and standing at a Miss
Speaker 1: America pageant saying your deepest desire is for world peace.
Speaker 1: You know, like you're losing a lot of relationship. So
Speaker 1: what stands out to you from this the most? The
Speaker 1: last segment that's really sometimes I think, like when I'm
Speaker 1: not even necessarily financially, but like in a place where
Speaker 1: i feel like I'm so tied up with practicalities or
Speaker 1: so worried about a certain thing that I'm not able to,
Speaker 1: I don't have the energy to pray. I don't have
Speaker 1: that space. I think about that sometimes when I'm not
Speaker 1: in those situations and I do have that time in
Speaker 1: that space, I feel very privileged because I think there
Speaker 1: are some people who don't have the time and space
Speaker 1: to pray right now, and to not that you can't
Speaker 1: pray on the fly and incorporate it into parts but meditation.
Speaker 1: He's talking about sitting in the synagogue and praying. He's
Speaker 1: talking about sitting by the Eastern wall. Is that the
Speaker 1: whaling wall or I guess the Eastern So that's what
Speaker 1: I was wondering. I don't know, but basically the two
Speaker 1: to sit in God's presence and just even to contemplate.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I think a lot of times
Speaker 1: about how philosophy feels like it's dying because people are
Speaker 1: so busy with doing and just even the time, you know,
Speaker 1: to sit and think and be and listen. So that's
Speaker 1: that's that. I didn't read ahead. So that took me
Speaker 1: by surprise. Yeah, I was taking section at time, and yeah,
Speaker 1: so that really took me by surprise. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would say some of the takeaways be
Speaker 2: as candid with God, Like, be painfully candid with God,
Speaker 2: and He already knows where you're at anyway, So don't
Speaker 2: try to put on a better face. Don't be the
Speaker 2: person on the first day trying to be ten times
Speaker 2: more impressive than you are, Like, be genuinely who you
Speaker 2: are because God already knows. And then trust that the
Speaker 2: more you pray through an issue, the more you're going. Like,
Speaker 2: don't be afraid of praying superficially, because God can take
Speaker 2: what starts as a superficial prayer and reveal some of
Speaker 2: the deepest desires of your heart. So I would say
Speaker 2: even listener homework aside from everyone going out and watching
Speaker 2: at least the first act I've fen lare on the roof. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this would be like, take a desire you have, even like,
Speaker 2: tell me if you want to. I'll tell you the assignment.
Speaker 2: Then you tell me if you want to do it
Speaker 2: on the air. Candidly, take a desire that you feel
Speaker 2: is almost frivolous, like maybe something you'd be a teeny
Speaker 2: tiny bit embarrassed to admit to, you know, the person
Speaker 2: werrying that Judgie Christian hat. And then ask yourself, what's
Speaker 2: my desire behind that desire or my prayer behind the prayer,
Speaker 2: and see if you can strip it away to something
Speaker 2: that is just as genuine and beautiful as at last
Speaker 2: verse if I were a rich man.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll be very candid. Yes, we went camping this
Speaker 1: weekend with some friends and everyone was wearing bathing suits
Speaker 1: and I was wearing a bathing suit and I had
Speaker 1: like a cover thing that was pretty modest that covered
Speaker 1: is you know more, And I was thinking, I don't
Speaker 1: like I just didn't feel comfortable in a bathing suit
Speaker 1: because I've put on extra pounds and I am so yeah,
Speaker 1: So my thought was I want to look good in
Speaker 1: a bathing suit?
Speaker 2: And did you feel guilty for having that thought? Like
Speaker 2: did you shame yourself for thinking that? Kind of because
Speaker 2: I a lot of women would sure, because.
Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to mind is, well, who's
Speaker 1: it for? You know? Is it for you know, you
Speaker 1: try and impress other people or you know? But and
Speaker 1: also because you know, I'm not morbidly obese or anything,
Speaker 1: but everything is shifted and I just and the core
Speaker 1: I would say, like number one, some of it is superficial.
Speaker 1: Some of it is just being superficial, but very superficial.
Speaker 1: Let's start there. Superficial. I want to look good because
Speaker 1: I want to. I guess I want when other people
Speaker 1: look at me, I want them to think that I'm healthy,
Speaker 1: that I'm not healthy, care of yourself, making care of myself,
Speaker 1: thank you, because healthy isn't the word that that I
Speaker 1: take care of myself. And maybe I equate being in
Speaker 1: shape with people perceiving that I'm motivated or like.
Speaker 2: Oh it's that idea of product activity productive. Yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that is somehow like morally superior.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and then you know, a layer below that is, yes,
Speaker 1: I want to be healthy. I know what it feels
Speaker 1: like to be in the habit of working out, to
Speaker 1: be in you know, to basically be in a place
Speaker 1: where I feel strong and where I look strong, and
Speaker 1: I miss that. I look back a little bit and think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to look strong. I want to feel strong
Speaker 1: because I had more energy, because I was able to
Speaker 1: do more things without getting out of breath or without
Speaker 1: you know, needing help to do it. So and then
Speaker 1: and then there is the health thing too, That's that's
Speaker 1: part of it. But I will say, you know, I
Speaker 1: definitely do I look at fitness now differently. I know
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be a supermodel in a bathing
Speaker 1: suit anymore. But I want to be healthy and I
Speaker 1: want my brain to be healthy, and I want my
Speaker 1: muscles to be strong. I want my bones not to
Speaker 1: atrophy from osteoporosis. I want, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: live long and be useful and productive and active and
Speaker 1: be able to have fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And also what I'm hearing from you, especially knowing your
Speaker 2: family history, as I'm hearing you not wanting to be
Speaker 2: somebody that's going to be difficult on your family. Right,
Speaker 2: if you want to be able to take care of yourself,
Speaker 2: you don't want to decay and have to burden your
Speaker 2: husband or your kids or your best friend. Slash co hosts,
Speaker 2: come and take care of you, right, Seriously, I'll volunteer
Speaker 2: to do if you ever need it. But yeah, but
Speaker 2: if you look at it in that sense, there's no
Speaker 2: shame in that whatsoever. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. I
Speaker 2: want my body to last so that I can keep
Speaker 2: serving the people I love for as long as I'm alive.
Speaker 2: I'll put an amen to that without having to add
Speaker 2: any qualifications to it. And if you hadn't allowed yourself
Speaker 2: to start with I want to feel better in a
Speaker 2: bathing suit, or even I want to look better in
Speaker 2: a bathing suit, you would have ever gotten to that.
Speaker 2: And it's very probable that there's even deeper levels that
Speaker 2: haven't popped out of that yet that you're gonna find
Speaker 2: even more so. So, Yeah, that's an exercise that I
Speaker 2: recommend everybody try, specifically for those desires that feel frivolous
Speaker 2: or something that you're embarrassed to admit, or that you
Speaker 2: think God is going to be mad at you for
Speaker 2: wanting and just remember our beautiful friend Teva. I will
Speaker 2: close with my one of my I have so many
Speaker 2: beautiful Filler on the Roof memories. It's actually the DVD
Speaker 2: because this was back in DVDs. Not only that, I
Speaker 2: had the Fiddler on the Roof vinyl record when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, and it was one of the only
Speaker 2: records that I would go downstairs because that's where our
Speaker 2: record player was and I would put it on, but
Speaker 2: we had the DVD. I don't think it was weird,
Speaker 2: just I think it was DVD. And I woke up
Speaker 2: with contractions for baby number two, and this was our
Speaker 2: baby where the labor got really prolonged and difficult, but
Speaker 2: we didn't know it at the time. I didn't want
Speaker 2: to wake up my husband because I didn't know if
Speaker 2: it was the real thing yet. So I sat up
Speaker 2: watching Fiddler on the Roof just counting contractions. It is
Speaker 2: a beautiful, beautiful show means a lot to be But
Speaker 2: aside from those, another favorite memory of mine is we
Speaker 2: got to take my niece to see a live stage
Speaker 2: version of it when she was probably like just six
Speaker 2: or seven, early elementary age. And there's a scene at
Speaker 2: s Daughter number two who's falling in love with the
Speaker 2: revolutionary that she's.
Speaker 1: Not supposed to fall in love with.
Speaker 2: And they do this like cute little jig dance, and
Speaker 2: then they have the moment where their like their faces
Speaker 2: are pretty close and they're staring into each other's eyes
Speaker 2: and it's like, you know, they're about to kiss before
Speaker 2: they get interrupted. So they're standing here pause their faces,
Speaker 2: you know, like two inches away from each other, and
Speaker 2: it's you know, there's probably at least a couple hundred
Speaker 2: people in the audience. It was a decent size theater.
Speaker 2: My niece loud enough for everybody, even the actors to hear, says,
Speaker 2: uh oh. She could follow enough with the story to
Speaker 2: understand that those two weren't supposed to they weren't supposed
Speaker 2: to be together.
Speaker 1: That is so cute. At least you knew she was
Speaker 1: paying attention. I know, very cute. So please go watch Fiddler.
Speaker 2: Don't bother with the second act of It's Too Sad
Speaker 2: for You, or at least put on the soundtrack. I
Speaker 2: hope I will not apologize if people get if I
Speaker 2: were a rich fan in your head for the rest
Speaker 2: of the day. It is fun and catchy, but so
Speaker 2: much more profound than you think of when you hear
Speaker 2: it just on its surface.
Speaker 1: I love that. We'd like to take just a quick
Speaker 1: second to thank the team at life Audio for their
Speaker 1: partnership with on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio
Speaker 1: dot com, you will find dozens of other faith centered
Speaker 1: podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
Speaker 1: and so much more. That's life audio dot com.